Beginnings
by Blu Kirbita
Summary: This is actually my most recent story, even though it is the second I chose to upload to this site. Anime-based. Meta Knight reminisces about his childhood. Rated T for angst and scary situations.
1. Preface

A shadowy figure stood on top of a hill, body hunched over. He gazed upon the landscape, thoughtful. If you had been in the land below and had been looking up, you would have seen a pair of glowing yellow eyes. Slowly, they changed from plain yellow to a shimmering green.

The moon hung low in the sky tonight, a huge circle that shone silver. It was beautiful.

The shadowy figure was feeling nostalgic tonight. In the light of the moon, he spread his wings, and flew. Against the brightly shining moon, he was no more than a shadow.

Slowly, he faded into the night.

Who could even say that they had seen him?


	2. Chapter 1

The village square was unusually empty today. Besides a small blue child with magenta feet, no one else was there.

The dark blue child with the yellow eyes was chasing a beach ball the size of himself. He leaped on top of it and tried to balance there, but he rolled right off.

The silence was broken by a single male voice.

"Meta! Meta Naito! META!!"

The child stopped in his tracks.

"Meta!"

A shadow appeared over the land, still far away. A circular shadow with bat wings was approaching the child at an alarming speed.

Suddenly, the shadow grew much larger as the owner of the shadow dive-bombed down, landing right in front of the frozen child.

Silver glowing oval eyes penetrated through the small one's mostly black eyes with white ovals and bright yellow crescents. The royal purple skin was certainly impressive, and navy blue feet somehow matched his lavender cheeks.

The child's bright pink cheeks flushed for a minute in embarrassment. He knew what was coming next.

"Meta! You are _never_ to run away from home! What were you thinking, acting foolishly like that?"

Meta shuffled his feet uneasily, before saying in a small somewhat high voice, "Sorry, father. It won't happen again father. I promise. You can trust me to never run away again, father."

"And what's with that ball?" Meta's father's wings folded flat behind his back. "What did I tell you? Real men don't have balls!"

Meta looked up into his father's face rather sheepishly.

"Sorry, father…"

Out of nowhere, his father's sword emerged. In one deftly quick movement, the ball was separated into precise halves. Meta gulped.

"You're too old to be playing with balls! From now on," his father said, "you're learning swordplay. And that is _not_ a game."


	3. Chapter 2

A few somethings passed. It could have been a few years or even a few decades; Meta's people, the Menaians, didn't keep track of the years very well.

Meta Naito stood still, a dagger clenched in his bigger (but still small) hand. He stood on the very top of a swing set in the park, trying to balance on one foot in a Zen-like stance. Clawing frantically at the bottom of the swing set was his sister, Mina Naito.

Her pink eyes blazed with fury as her yellow arms scrambled to get a grip on the smooth metal legs. In her left hand was a very pretty short sword, embellished with emeralds that made the light dance on their many facets. Mina finally wrapped her dark pink feet around the pole and started to shimmy up it. Mina's feathered bird-like wings flapped with effort. They were still much too small to fly with, but definitely growing. The brown feathers looked much like owl wings, and they were just as fluffy.

Calling up to her younger brother, Mina cried, "Just you wait! You're not going to escape from me this time!" Her pitifully small wings fluttered like they expected they'd be able to carry her up to the top.

"You're not going to get out of sword practice this easy!" Mina paused a moment before adding, "Not again, anyhow!"

Meta stuck his tongue out at his sister. It wasn't so much that he hated swordplay; it was just that he loved driving his big sister nuts. He found it amusing. Sometimes, when she got _really_ mad, both her eyes would grow completely red, although it was so faint that it was hard to make out.

Of course, his sister was much older than he. It was evidence enough that his eyes never glowed in the slightest, as well as the fact that his wings hadn't started growing yet.

Mina paused in her climbing. "How are you going to get back down, anyway?"

Meta didn't answer. He was extremely agile, and she knew it. He could probably fall from a skyscraper and land on both feet, unharmed.

It probably had to do with how he was built. He was young enough that most of his bones were still made of cartilage, and his big feet were able to take an awful lot of impact before getting weary.

He was also light for his age. He didn't have much muscle, but he was clever and could run faster than you would expect.

Mina, on the other hand, was built just the opposite. Her arms were thick with muscle, but she lacked his speed and ingenuity. She also had a hot temper, while Meta was very calm and levelheaded.

As soon as Mina got over halfway up, Meta leaped off the top and landed on the hard ground with barely a sound.

Mina Naito quickly slid down the pole and ran after him.

"Father said that he won't make you a proper sword until you practice with me and learn how to fight."

Meta paused for a second and looked back, but only for a moment. He ran ahead, faster than before.

"Father said that the Galaxy Soldier Army doesn't accept cowards!"

Meta stopped so fast that he tripped over his own two feet.

"TAKE THAT BACK!" he yelled, turning around so fast that the motion was hard to see.

Mina grinned, her shiny white teeth gleaming. "Not until you promise to stop running away, you great chicken!"

Meta stared her down. "Fight me!"

They ran straight at each other, pointing the flat of their blades towards their respective targets. Meta slammed the dull curvy blade of his dagger into the side of Mina's proper sword, and was almost thrown back as the blade bounced off.

Mina smiled. "You'll have to try harder than that!"

Meta held the dagger firmly with both hands and threw his entire weight against the flat of her sword.

"Don't put all your strength behind a single blow. Hasn't Father taught you anything?"

Mina quickly parried, forcing Meta to jump back.

Meta firmly held his blade in both hands, and, on a whim, spun around quickly, his blade wrenching Mina's sword from her hands.

"-What?" was all Mina could say.

Then Meta pointed his dagger at her, the blunt edge poking her in the stomach.

"Come back when you'll put up a fight," he challenged her.

Mina sighed. "Alright, alright, so you've won. But you'll need to do better than that when you're fighting to the death."

Meta sheathed his blunt dagger quietly. "Yeah, but I'm still better than you."

Mina Naito shook her head and walked away.

Meta Naito smiled to himself. Winning felt good. He felt triumphant. He quickly pulled out his sword and made fancy moves, dodging invisible foes and cutting them down. He moved across the playground with leaps, sidesteps, and fancy parries. Then, he tried his spinning attack again.

He spun around and around, holding the blade straight in front of him. Faster and faster he went, spinning like a top so quickly that he could have sworn his feet lifted off the ground. For several moments he churned around, a swirl of dust and sand enveloping him so he couldn't see his surroundings. _SWOOP SWOOP SWOOP SWOOP SWOOP SWOOP_**_THUNK__! _**

Meta came to a sudden halt, his dagger embedded deeply into the trunk of a rather sturdy tree. His feet dangled in the air, and he found that he was several meters up, with no branches below him. Mina was nowhere in sight.


	4. Chapter 3

"…And that, class, is how the Cartuthium War was won."

Meta Naito sighed in relief. History class had been much more tedious than usual today. The teacher had been going on and on about the death and destruction of the solar systemic war between two different species Meta had never even heard of before. He was relieved that school was finally over for the day.

As he shoved his thick history book into his pack and put it on, one of his friends rushed over. Meta listened to his friend drivel on and on about how absolutely awful his day was.

"…And Sharma, you know, my language teacher, said that we're all doomed a slow and painful death as our language mutates and becomes hopelessly slandered by people who can't use it correctly."

"Sharma-melo?" Meta asked, using his dialect's respective term for adults. "Really? Sharma-melo said _that_? I thought he was optimistic!"

"No, Meta-belo. Don't be silly!"

Meta Naito was taken aback. His own friend had called him a child! This was one of the most insulting ways to address your peer! Meta decided to one-up him.

"Well, Xanta-bemo, I only was sharing my opinion with you."

Xanta's white face flushed cherry red for a moment. The only thing worse than being called –belo by your friends was to be called a "promising child," also known as –bemo.

"I don't take kindly to insults, Meta-bemo. You must remember that we're all children here, no matter how fancily we can put others down."

"You're one to talk."

"Oh, sorry Meta Naito, but I've got to go now." With a smug expression, Xanta walked away.

"Just as well," Meta muttered underneath his breath. "I don't need him messing around with things in my father's workshop."

And in just a few minutes, Meta was inside his father's said workshop.

"Meta, did you act appropriately in school today?" his father asked after banging a hammer onto a sword he was crafting. The blade was red-hot and was erupting sparks with every slam.

"Yeah, Father. The history teacher was a real pain today." Meta took off his backpack and set it down, just next to the sturdy door of meta alloy.

"Oh? What happened?"

"We just learned about the Cartuthium War."

"Ouch. I've heard from others how painfully dull that lesson is."

Then, all of a sudden, the ground shook. Meta's father's anvil rattled around inside the shop.

"…An earthquake?" Meta asked his father.

"I doubt it," the father replied.

"A volcanic eruption?"

"Don't be silly, Meta. You know that most of the volcanoes on Menotai are inactive. There are only a handful of volcanoes still capable of erupting, and they're on the other side of the planet!"

Meta stepped outside for a moment, gaped, and then took a quivering step back inside.

"F-F-F-Father…" he stuttered.

"Yes, Meta? What is it?"

"F-Father, the sky is red!"

"Red?" Meta's father took a step outside for a moment to make sure his son hadn't gone mad.

Indeed, as his son had said, the sky was red, and, what's more, the clouds in the sky, normally silver, were now an unsettling black. The two suns, normally an orangish-to-reddish-yellow, both glowed an eerie purple.

"Father, what's going on?"

As if to answer Meta's question, a deafening cracking noise was heard from the roof above.

Meta's father placed his hands in the pommel of his sword, still sheathed at the moment. Meta seeing his father do so, also readied himself to draw his real dagger that his father had made for him some time ago.

The rafters groaned painfully, and there was a noise that sounded like the copper shingles were sliding off and hitting the ground.

Meta held his breath, his body quivering only slightly as he waited for something to happen.

Sure enough, within a few moments, there was the noise of splitting wood, and something large dropped through a hole in the roof.

Meta's father was quick to draw his sword, and Meta himself did likewise as soon as he heard his father do so.

Meta momentarily flashed back to when he got his dagger. His father had made it especially for him. The butt and handle were plain, but the sword itself was beautiful. It was made to be light, sharp, and dependable. It was the dagger for a fast soldier.

Another large form dropped down, and then another…and another…and another…

The first form had picked itself up and was making its way toward Meta Naito and his father. As it started approaching, the lights overhead flickered and went out. All Meta could see was the red sky showing through the gap in the roof, and the glowing purple-red eyes of the creatures that had fallen through. The only light still on in the workshop was an emergency backup light that cast a very dim light over the room. Every few moments, another creature would drop down through the hole.

Meta heard more sounds coming from different parts of the roof, and before he knew it, there were more than half a dozen tears above him.

His father acted quickly, slashing at the closest cat-like monster with his sword. It was huge compared to him; possibly five feet tall if it stood on its hind feet. The strange creature hissed and howled. The noise was deafening.

Meta could only watch as the shadowy figure of his father exchanged blows with the feline monster. Things were alright at first, but when his father took down the first demonic beast, two more took its place. And when his father beat those two, four more appeared nearby.

Meta then leaped onto the closest beast and thrust his dagger at its head. The demon howled in agony and retaliated, throwing Meta off its back and into the side of his father's anvil.

Meta groaned and picked himself up slowly, his vision blurry for a few moments and his head throbbing painfully.

Meta saw his father, brighter than a shadow now with all the red light illuminating him. He was fighting against a countless number of creatures at once, and losing. Meta watched for a few seconds, horrified, and ten demon beasts piled on top of his father, snarling and yapping like feral dogs. Meta Naito was unable to move as he watched the death of his own father.

Suddenly, however, all the creatures were thrust back, and Meta ran towards his father.

His heart instantly sank.

His father had been mortally wounded in a way far too graphic to tell. Meta's eyes filled with tears, but then he heard his father speak.

His father made a sickly gurgling cough, and in a voice that was no more than a wheezy breath, said his final words.

"Meta…" His father's eyes were blurry and most likely he could no longer see. "Meta…I have died…a s-soldier's death……" Here his father paused to draw a shallow ragged gasp before finishing, "You…must…avenge…me."

Meta's father's eyes closed then, and his arms fell limp at his sides.

For a moment, Meta was unable to comprehend what had happened. He couldn't accept that his father had gone so quickly.

But then it broke to him.

Filled with a sobbing rage, he picked up his dagger and leaped onto the closest monster, sinking his sharp pointy teeth into its neck. The thing yowled and shook itself powerfully, nearly causing Meta to lose a tooth in the process. Meta took his dagger and shoved it into the creature's back as hard as he could, but he had to loosen his grip on the monster's neck just enough that he was thrown again; this time into a concrete wall with the force of a car crash.

Meta groaned and closed his eyes. His throbbing headache was now a skull-shattering migraine, and he was sure that at least one of his bones was broken.

The beast approached him, gasping from its wounds, and took a swipe at his belly. Meta shrieked in agony and instantly blacked out.

**

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A/N: **Mmm, I hate to leave you on such a cliffhanger like this, but as soon as the next exciting chapter's finished, you'll be able to disregard this message. If by the time you get here, the next chapter's not up, you can leave a review guessing what you think will happen. Of course, I won't tell you, but I'm kind of interested in what all of you think.... All two of you, as probably is the case.


	5. Update

**UPDATE 10/1/11:**

Hey guys, I just thought I should tell you that I am absolutely not dead. I haven't been on much for the last...uh...year, and there are reasons for that.

I feel like I can't write anymore. It doesn't bring me the joy that it used to. I used to get an emotional high and be bursting with ideas, but I just do not get that anymore. I've realized that my true strength is in roleplaying. And it is because of roleplaying that I won't be continuing any of my fanfics. You see, most of my roleplays for the past year have been in the setting of my main fanfic. We had a group of about five, and the other people's characters just became essential to the story. And they're not my characters...and one of the guys with the most important characters I know wouldn't approve of me even mentioning him on here.

I really am sorry, guys. But if you'd like to roleplay with me or talk to me, I'm ~BluTehKirbyGirl on deviantART.

I'll be adding this note to the ends of all my fics, just so that all of you subscribed people see it and know what's going on.


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